Do elephants sweat? Asian elephants: description, features, lifestyle, nutrition and interesting facts

Elephants are considered the largest land representatives of the fauna. But not only their size and power amazes - these animals are extremely smart and sociable. They take care of their families, and their lives are regulated by many social laws and rules. These herbivorous giants, combining incredible strength and tenderness, are able to preserve the memory of long-dead relatives and mourn the loss of loved ones. Want to know even more interesting facts about elephants? Then read this article.

1.Elephants are the only living representatives of a group of mammals that once included the extinct American mastodon and mammoth. Manatees and hyraxes are also considered to be relatives of elephants, since they have common ancestors, and manatees are good-natured sea giants, and hyraxes are funny, clumsy animals the size of a cat.

2. Currently, elephants are divided into African and Asian, which differ in appearance from each other. DNA studies have shown that African elephants are represented by two species: giants inhabiting forests and their relatives living in savannas. Thus, total quantity There are three species of living elephants, while previously, more than 12 thousand years ago, there were about 40 species.

3. Elephants are herbivores; their diet includes grasses, tree bark, leaves and fruits. They can spend approximately 18 hours eating every day. Well, since only 40 percent of the food consumed gives the animal the necessary feeling of fullness, the portions must be sufficient to meet the needs of his body. An adult animal usually eats about 180 kilograms of food per day and drinks 100–180 liters of water. To quench their thirst, elephants sometimes have to travel many kilometers.

4. Elephants use their impressive ears as fans, and their ears also help scare off annoying insects, express emotions and look more impressive in the eyes of the enemy.

5. Males and females have tusks, but not all species, for example, female Indian elephants do not have tusks. Tusks are modified teeth that grow throughout the animal's life. With the help of tusks, animals carry various objects, strip bark from trees, clear paths, dig roots from the ground, and fight enemies. Average length tusks have declined significantly over the past few hundred years. And the blame is all on poachers who exterminated elephants with large tusks (the length of the tusks is inherited).

6. “Like a bull in a china shop” - they often say about a clumsy, clumsy person. However, the elephant itself is not at all clumsy. He has a well-developed sense of touch; even the giant’s foot is so sensitive that he can feel a coin on a flat surface. Being in a confined space, the animal senses the surrounding objects well and behaves carefully, but if it gets angry, it will actually destroy everything around it.

7. An elephant’s trunk is an amazing organ that is a continuation of the animal’s upper lip and nose. The trunk gives its owner a subtle sense of smell. And with the help of their trunk, elephants feed, take various objects, greet friends, scare away enemies, etc. With its trunk, the giant can lift any object from the ground from a log to a match. The trunk has tens of thousands of muscles, while in human body there are less than 650 of them! Heallows you to arrange a dusty or water shower (the trunk can hold up to eight liters of water). It is also an excellent periscope that helps the elephant breathe when it is underwater. Baby elephants suck on their trunk for comfort, much like small children suck on a pacifier. In order not to lose their mother, the cubs often cling to her tail with their trunk.

8. A female elephant is only able to conceive for a few days a year. Its gestation period is the longest among all mammals (the African elephant has 22 months, the Indian elephant 21). The weight of a newborn elephant calf can reach 120 kilograms!

9. Elephants live in families consisting of females - representatives of several generations and young animals of different ages. Females remain with their clan all their lives, while males, having reached 12-17 years of age, usually begin an independent life. The family is headed by an elephant matriarch. Her responsibilities include regulation way of life relatives, maintaining cohesion, caring for safety. The matriarch makes decisions in extreme situations, for example, when it is necessary to attack the enemy, and when, on the contrary, to flee. She teaches young elephant mothers how to care for their babies, and also prepares her successor, who in the future will lead the family clan. A change of leader occurs only due to the death of the matriarch.

10. Elephants communicate with each other through touching and different sounds- grumbling, growling, grumbling, whistling. Moreover, they can produce sounds at such a low frequency that the human ear cannot detect them. The animals themselves are able to distinguish low-frequency sounds at a distance of more than eight kilometers.

11. Elephants have an amazing memory that allows them to remember insults caused by people, as well as places. important events. They do not forget their relatives even decades after separation. When meeting, they often form a circle, raising their heads high, flapping their ears and trumpeting loudly.

12. Elephants are emotionally highly developed. Joy, sadness, empathy for loved ones, anger - all this is not alien to these giants. Scientists are also inclined to believe that animals can experience joy when meeting a relative, at the birth of a baby in the clan, and also grieve for the dead. For example, females within a clan celebrate the birth of a baby together by trumpeting and stomping their feet. Or they take turns on duty, protecting a wounded baby elephant from the scorching sun and surrounding it with a tight ring if a predator appears somewhere nearby. Elephants express the most reverent and tender feelings through kisses and hugs. They can even smile. In addition, they bury their dead relatives - they throw leaves, branches and earth on the remains, trying to completely cover them. Eyewitnesses testify that elephants have been visiting the graves of their loved ones for many years.

13. Elephants play an extremely important role in wildlife. These herbivorous giants help maintain biodiversity in their habitats. They are capable of transporting plant seeds over a distance of up to 65 km, which makes them record holders among land animals in this regard. Scientists believe that if elephants disappear from the face of the earth, it will spell disaster for many species of animals and plants.

That's not all interesting facts about elephants. Below are a few more features from the life of these animals:

Elephants do not sweat: they simply do not have sebaceous glands. Some kind of thermostats help them cool down - big ears;
V in order to protect themselves from the scorching sun, insect bites and fluid loss, giants take mud baths;
Elephants swim well, but they cannot gallop. In addition, it is the only animal that cannot jump;
Elephants' teeth change 6-7 times during their life;
September 22 is World Elephant Day;
The Age of the Elephant in the Wild favorable conditions is 60-70 years old.

Very high intelligence And good memory, as a result of which they are easy to train.

Previously, elephants were used for military purposes, but today they are depicted on money, logos of famous brands, as well as on coats of arms and flags.

In this article you will learn interesting facts about elephants in general, as well as about their physical and moral characteristics in particular.

How long do elephants live?

Before answering this question, it is important to determine the conditions in which the elephant lives.

For example, free elephants live for about 60 years. But in captivity they live up to 80 years of age.

This is due to the fact that in the wild elephants constantly face dangers, natural disasters and poaching.

An interesting fact is that one of the most famous elephants named Lin Wang lived 86 years. Thanks to this, he got into the Guinness Book of Records as an elephant that lived in captivity greatest number years.

Lin Wang participated in military operations and performed in the circus arena, but spent most of his life in the zoo.

Elephant pregnancy

Interesting facts related to elephant pregnancy are very popular, so let's understand the basics of this issue.

First of all, it must be said that a female elephant can only become pregnant on certain days of the year, although they can mate at any time. An elephant's pregnancy lasts longer than anyone else's. terrestrial mammals, and is as much as 22 months.

A newborn elephant weighs about 100 kg and is born completely blind. For the next 10 years of his life, he is still considered small and needs constant protection.

Only after reaching 15 years of age can elephants live independently and create their own families.

What do elephants eat

Typically, elephants eat leaves and grass. However, during the dry and rainy season, fruits, berries and even tree bark can also become food for them.

Under natural conditions, these giants eat approximately 300 kg of vegetation every day. Elephants spend about 16 hours a day searching for and eating food.

However, in captivity they eat half and sometimes three times less. Elephants enjoy eating vegetables, bread and even grains.

Elephants need a lot of fluid for normal body function, so they drink 100-300 liters of water a day.

When they are sick, they drink even more.

Trunk, tusks and ears

Below are interesting facts about the most noticeable parts of an elephant's body.

An elephant's trunk does not have a nasal bone.
Because the elephant's trunk is made up of 150,000 different muscles, it is extremely flexible and strong.
At one time, an elephant can pick up 6-8 liters of water with its trunk and then pour it into its mouth.
An elephant can easily lift up to 300 kg with its trunk.
The length of the trunk is approximately 1.5 meters.
Thanks to their trunk, elephants can easily and easily swim across rivers. To do this, they are completely immersed in water, and their trunk is held high above the surface.
If elephants have to dig something or carry heavy objects, in addition to their trunk, they also use their tusks. The length of the tusks is from 2 to 2.5 m, with a weight of about 100 kg.
An elephant's ear weighs 80-90 kg, and is an excellent thermostat for this animal. During the hottest part of the day, elephants flap their ears to the sides, thereby avoiding overheating. In cold weather, on the contrary, they try to press their ears to their body in order to retain heat longer.

Are elephants afraid of mice?

An interesting fact is that there is a strong belief that elephants are afraid of mice. Legend has it that the elephant is afraid that a mouse will get into its trunk and disrupt the main processes of life.

For the first time, such a statement was made by the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder. However, modern scientists have completely dispelled this myth.

In fact, elephants are simply irritated by any sudden movements near them. That is, if the mouse sat in one place, it would not disturb the elephant in any way.

Smart animals

Scientists have proven that elephants have extremely developed self-awareness and extremely good memory. Moreover, they, like dolphins and monkeys, are able to distinguish their reflection in the mirror.

As for memory, one interesting fact cannot fail to be mentioned. The fact is that elephants accurately remember the many kilometers of trails along which they walk, and then long time walk on them.

Mental abilities of elephants

An elephant's brain weighs about 5 kg, making it the largest of any animal.
Elephants are capable of experiencing a wide variety of things. Therefore, joy, sadness and compassion are all well known to them.
Elephants are highly trainable and can obey many commands from people.
Through ultrasound, elephants can warn their relatives about various dangers.
An interesting fact is that elephants have their own burial ritual. When one of the members of the herd dies, his fellow tribesmen throw earth and stones at the dead body. After this, they sit next to the deceased for several more days, thus expressing their grief.

Some more interesting facts about elephants

Did you know that an elephant's sense of smell is 4 times better than that of bloodhounds?
However, the vision of these mammals is much worse. An elephant can examine any object at a maximum distance of 25 m. In ancient times, hunters sat on a tamed elephant and penetrated into the middle of the herd in order to look out for their prey.
An elephant's heart beats at 30 beats per minute and weighs about 25 kg.
Previously, elephants were used for fighting purposes. Their menacing appearance and gigantic sizes terrified the enemy. However, then inventive minds came up with an antidote: they coated the pigs with a flammable substance, set them on fire, and directed them at the elephants. The squealing of the pigs and the frantic speed with which the pigs rushed towards the elephants caused the latter to panic.
Every 10 years, elephants renew their teeth.
One working tusk can determine whether an elephant is right-handed or left-handed.
Elephants spend only about 3 hours a day sleeping, and spend the rest of the time searching for food.
Males prefer to live alone, while female elephants live in families.
If a herd of elephants begins to starve, then the female elephants separate from it and look for food on their own.
On average, during her entire life, a female elephant gives birth to about 9 cubs.
And this is a very interesting fact. Females do not give birth to their young alone. During childbirth, there is always another elephant present, who immediately takes the newborn so that the mother does not accidentally crush him.
Elephants have the ability to hear sounds through the vibration of their legs at a distance of 50 km.
An elephant tooth weighs 3 kg.
Immediately after birth, baby elephants do not know how to control their trunk. And only at the age of two does this thing begin to obey them.
If an elephant gets sick, its relatives look after it and bring it food.
If an elephant accidentally finds a lonely baby elephant, he will “adopt” it, rather than abandon it alone to certain death.
When an elephant's teeth wear out, it dies.
The pattern of veins on elephants' ears is unique and can be compared to human fingerprints.
Thanks to their good memory, elephants can for many years remember your offenders and, if necessary, take revenge on them. So don't offend these little ones.
Elephants are unable to jump.
Interesting fact: only the elephant, among all animals, can stand on its head.
Fun fact: elephants love to drink beer and can even make their own beer. To do this, they throw various fruits into the pit and then wait until they begin to ferment.
Elephants are unpredictable and can attack for no apparent reason. Therefore, no matter how cute the animals may seem to us, remember that in the wild there are laws that should never be violated.

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Elephants are considered not only the largest mammals on Earth, but also one of the most sociable animals: an elephant cannot live alone; it needs communication with its relatives. It is noteworthy that elephants communicate at low frequencies, and the distance between two talking elephants can reach 10 kilometers.

Elephant cemetery

Scientists have dispelled the myth that elephants have their own separate cemetery by conducting a series of experiments. However, during these experiments it was found that elephants are indeed very respectful of the remains of their relatives: they easily recognize the bones of their fellow tribesmen in a pile of other bones, they will never step on the bones of a dead elephant, and will also try to push them aside so as not to other members of the herd came.

Elephants don't sweat

No matter how strange this fact about elephants may seem, they really do not sweat: they do not have sebaceous glands. In order not to “cook” in the heat, elephants use mud baths or ears. Elephants' ears are permeated with a network of blood vessels, which, in extreme heat, expand and release heat very abundantly into the ears. environment. During cold periods they narrow.

Silent as an elephant

The average weight of an elephant is 12 tons, but they walk very quietly. You will hardly notice if an elephant calmly approaches you from behind. The thing is that the ball of the elephant's foot is designed in such a way that it is capable of springing and expanding, occupying everything more space as you move the place onto it: imagine that you glued a feather pillow to your sole - it’s about the same thing with elephants. That is why they walk through swamps with ease.

Elephants can't run

Almost all animals are capable of running, i.e. move in such a way when the whole body is completely in the air for a few fractions of a second. Elephants, due to their large mass, cannot lift their body into the air and run “halfway”: the front legs move at a trot, and the hind legs support the entire weight and are rearranged as if walking quickly. In this mode, the elephant can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h.

Sexual orientation of elephants

Elephants are homosexuals and that's a fact! The thing is that female elephants are ready to mate only once a year, and an elephant’s pregnancy lasts 22 months (the longest pregnancy among mammals), and males need to mate more often. That is why they resort to each other's help and practice same-sex relationships.

Elephants live in herds

Female elephants live in herds of 10-15 individuals. They raise their young together and take care of each other: they can bring water or food to an elephant that has been injured in some way and cannot move. Elephant cubs live in a herd until they are 12-14 years old, after which they can either stay or separate and start their own family. Male elephants prefer solitude, but close to a herd. An elephant can only leave its herd if it dies or is caught by people.

Elephants live 40-60 years. Most old elephant- Lin Wang from Taiwan, he died in 2003 at the age of 86. This elephant served in Chinese army and fought during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

Elephants are excellent dodgers

He does everything the elephant needs with his trunk: eats, picks leaves, picks up objects, waters himself. Elephants have been known to draw or open padlocks with a key.

Elephants are very smart

The elephant's brain weighs about 5 kilograms and is more complex than that of other mammals. In terms of the complexity of their brain structure, elephants are second only to whales. It has been proven that elephants experience feelings of joy, grief, compassion, are capable of cooperation and are easy to train.

Elephants are gluttonous

Elephants feed for about 16 hours a day, you could say that all they do is eat. An elephant can eat up to 450 kilograms of vegetation per day. On hot days, an elephant drinks about 300 liters of water, which is also observed when sick. At normal temperature the dose is reduced to 100 liters.

Elephants are becoming extinct

It is no secret that elephant tusks are a very expensive material, and poachers, unfortunately, do not miss this type of income. Elephants' tusks grow 7 inches (18 cm) per year and can reach lengths of more than 20 feet (6 meters). If the elephant dies on its own, then the tusks are eaten by African porcupines, thus trying to satisfy their mineral hunger. In many countries, killing an elephant is punishable by death.

Elephants sleep standing up

All adult elephants sleep standing up, huddled together and, if possible, leaning on each other. If the elephant is old and has very large tusks, then he places them on a tree or termite mound. An interesting fact about elephants is that baby elephants can easily afford to fall on their side, which they successfully do, but for some reason this habit goes away with age.

Elephants are killers

Most often, in circuses, trainers are killed by elephants, because the latter accidentally sit on them or step on them. In the early 20th century, several elephants were executed in the United States because they crushed people. For example, the circus elephant Topsy was sentenced to death by AC shock in 1903 for crushing three people. And in 1916, they tried to shoot an elephant named Big Mary for a similar offense, but a few hours later she was hanged from a crane.

Elephants are the only representatives of the ancient group of proboscideans that have survived to this day. Previously there were 40 species, most of them reproduced until the end of the last ice age 12,500 years ago, there were pygmy elephants, mammoths and Dinotherium. Only three have survived to this day - the African savannah elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. We present you the most interesting facts about them.

These are the largest living animals. Their body length reaches 6-7.5 meters, and average weight- 5 tons. Most big elephant, ever recorded, was shot dead in Angola in 1956. This male weighed approximately 11,000 kilograms, with a height of 3.96 meters.

There are about 500,000 in the world African elephants, the Asian population ranges from 35 to 50 thousand.

The Asian elephant is the smallest with small ears and tusks. He has two bumps on his forehead. "Asians" hold their heads more vertically than African elephants. They do not have a prominent upper lip, but instead have a single finger-like appendage at the end of their trunk, which they use skillfully. Both species of African elephants have large ears, although the forest elephant has rounder ears, with a small amount hair, the tusks are slightly larger, the forehead is rounder, and there are two finger-like processes on the trunk. In the forest, the tusks are relatively straight and point downwards, while in the savannah they are beautifully curved.

Elephants are family animals. Females live in a herd, which is considered the most cohesive society of all animals. The female leaves the herd only if she dies or is caught by people. The leader is the most experienced female. Males leave the herd at about 12 years of age and live in temporary "bachelor herds" until they reach maturity and then live alone.

Elephants mating all year round, but the female is capable of conceiving only a few days a year. During this time, males will court her, use various mating games, rub and cuddle with her. If the female likes it, she will react with the same actions.

After conception, the female will be pregnant for 22 months and this is the longest pregnancy of any animal. Some females induce labor using certain plants.

The weight of a newborn elephant calf is about 120 kilograms. Baby elephants are born blind, so they hold onto their mother's tail with their trunk. Some of them suck on their trunk for comfort, just as humans suck thumb. The baby elephant has little developed survival instincts, so his mother and other experienced members of their herd train him. The baby elephant's mother chooses several nannies to care for him, and thus she has time to feed herself in order to produce enough milk.

Elephants have the largest brains of any land animal. His weight is 5 kilograms. Therefore, they can be trained; they learn up to 60 commands. Elephants are believed to have a wide range of behaviors and skills. They feel sad, worried, bored, help their relatives, and also have some abilities in music and drawing.

Only elephants and humans have burial rituals. If one of them is sick, they bring him food and support him while he stands. If the elephant dies, the family tries to revive it with water and food for a while. When it becomes clear that he is dead, the herd falls silent. They often dig a shallow grave and cover the deceased with dirt and branches, and then remain near the grave for several days. If the herd accidentally stumbles upon a lone dead elephant, they also give him such honors. There are known cases when they buried dead people found in this way.

Elephants communicate with each other and with other herds that are far from them using sounds and stamping their feet. Human ears cannot perceive their sounds because they are too low.

Elephants are herbivores. They sleep only 2-3 hours a day. Because of their size, they have to spend a lot of time searching for food. In fact, their whole life is a continuous search for food - they are busy with this up to 20 hours a day. An elephant eats from 45 to 450 kilos of vegetation per day and drinks from 100 to 300 liters of water.

Due to their large appetite, elephant teeth wear out very quickly and they change not 2 times like in humans, but 6 or 7 times. New teeth grow at the back of the mouth and gradually protrude forward, replacing old, worn ones. When the last teeth wear out, the herd helps feed, but lonely elephants usually die of hunger.

An elephant's heart weighs 20-30 kg and beats at a frequency of 30 times per minute.

The ears of an adult elephant can reach 4 meters in width. They use them as a natural fan, cooling themselves and driving away midges.

The elephant's trunk is truly a miracle of nature; it is actually an extension of the upper lip. This is a very complex tool and elephants use it no worse than we do with our hands. They can grab objects and reach green branches from treetops. The trunk is capable of holding 7.5 liters of water. Having filled it with water, the elephant rolls up its trunk, puts its end into its mouth and blows, the water runs straight down its throat. Trained elephants can draw with their trunks and perform various tasks. The elephant's trunk has more than 40,000 receptors, which is why they have an excellent sense of smell.

First, elephants grow milk tusks, and permanent ones take their place. In adult males they grow at a rate of 18 centimeters per year. They are used for digging and lifting heavy objects, mating games. Poachers kill animals for their ivory, so the average size of tusks is gradually decreasing, since individuals with small “tusks” are not hunted and they reproduce more (their length is a genetically inherited trait.

An interesting fact is that elephants can also be left-handed or right-handed. Because they adapt to work with the right or left tusk. Thus, their tusk is shorter than the other because it wears out faster.

Each elephant foot has 5 toes, but not every toe has a nail. Most easy way Telling the two species of African elephants apart is as simple as counting their fingernails. The African forest elephant and Asian elephant have 5 nails on their forelimbs and 4 nails on their hind limbs. The large African savannah elephant has 4 or sometimes 5 nails on the forelimbs and 3 nails on the hind limbs. An elephant can easily knock down a fairly large tree with one foot.

Elephants are excellent swimmers, but they cannot jump or run. They have two types of gait: walking and brisk walking, which is equivalent to running. Elephants usually move at a speed of 2-6 km/h, but at short time can reach speeds of up to 35-40 km/h

Elephants are thick-skinned animals, in the truest sense of the word - in some places the thickness of their skin can reach 3.5-4 centimeters.

Typically, the lifespan of elephants is between 50 and 70 years. The oldest elephant, Lin Wang, from Taiwan, died in 2003 at the age of 86. It was a “fighting” elephant that served the Chinese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

The first living elephant in America was a relatively small two-year-old female brought to New York from Calcutta in 1796. Perhaps she turned out to be the Scientist Elephant, or Little Beth, who was killed in 1822 in Chepachet (Rhode Island) by boys who wanted to test whether elephant skin was really bulletproof.

Jumbo, the world's most famous elephant, was born in equatorial Africa in the vicinity of Lake Chad, from where he was brought as a baby in 1862 to Paris botanical garden. In 1865 it was sold to the Royal Zoological Gardens in London, where it remained for 18 years until it was transported to the United States. For three years, Jumbo traveled all over North America. railway in a specially equipped carriage and carried more than a million children on his back. He died in 1885 as a result train accident in the Canadian province of Ontario. His stuffed animal is now at Tufts University in Medford (Massachusetts), and a huge skeleton (the height of the animal at the withers was 3.2 m) is exhibited in American Museum Natural History in New York.

The elephant is revered by many peoples. Buddhism puts it on a par with the dove of peace, and the Hindu god of wisdom Ganesha is an elephant-headed one. In India, all white elephants were considered the property of rajahs and were never used for work, but the greatest honor was given to such animals in Siam. Even the king was forbidden to ride a white elephant. Food was served to him on huge gold or silver dishes, and his drinking water scented with jasmine. The animal, covered with precious blankets, was carried on a luxuriously decorated platform. African pygmies They believe that elephants are possessed by the souls of their dead leaders.

Few animals on our planet have been mourned, mythologized and celebrated as much as those of Africa and Asia. In this article you will learn 10 interesting and amazing facts about elephants, from how these thick-skinned mammals use their trunks to how long females carry their young.

1. There are 3 different living species of elephants

Savannah elephant

All representatives of the elephant family are divided into 3 species: African savannah elephant ( Loxodonta africana), African forest elephant ( Loxodonta cyclotis) and Asian or Indian elephant ( Elephas maximus). African elephants are much larger than Asian elephants, and adult males can weigh up to 7 tons (making them). The Asian elephant weighs slightly less, about 5 tons.

By the way, the African forest elephant was once considered a subspecies of the African savannah elephant, but genetic analysis shows that the two elephant species diverged somewhere between two and seven million years ago.

2. An elephant's trunk is a universal body part

Apart from its enormous size, the most noticeable part of an elephant's body is its trunk, which looks like an extremely elongated nose and upper lip. Elephants use their trunks not only to breathe, smell and eat, they can grasp tree branches, lift objects weighing up to 350 kg, stroke other elephants, dig in the ground for water and give themselves a shower. contains more than 100,000 muscle fibers, which make it an amazingly delicate and precise tool, for example, an elephant can use its trunk to shell a peanut without damaging the kernel located inside, or wipe dirt from the eyes, or clean other parts of the body.

3. Ears help elephants cool down

Considering how big they are and how hot they are, humid climate elephants live, these animals in the process have adapted to regulate their body temperature. An elephant can't flap its ears to fly (a la Disney's Dumbo), however large area The surface of its ears contains a dense network of blood vessels that release heat into and thus help cool the body in the blazing sun. Not surprisingly, elephants' large ears have another evolutionary advantage: ideal conditions An African or Asian elephant can hear the call of a sick relative from a distance of more than 8 km, as well as the approach of any animals that may threaten the herd's cubs.

4. Elephants are extremely smart animals

In the truest sense of the word, elephants weigh up to 5.5 kg for adult males, compared to 1-2 kg for the average human (however, elephants' brains are much smaller than humans', in proportion to body weight). Elephants not only know how to use their trunk as a tool, but also demonstrate a high degree of self-awareness (for example, recognizing themselves in the mirror) and empathy for other members of the herd. Some elephants have even stroked the bones of their dead relatives, although naturalists disagree on whether this proves a primitive understanding of death.

5. The main female in the herd

Elephants have developed a unique social structure: Essentially, males and females live completely separately, meeting only briefly during the breeding season. Three or four females, along with their young, form a herd (about 12 individuals), while males either live alone or form smaller herds with other males ( savannah elephants sometimes gather in larger groups of more than 100 individuals). Female herds have a matriarchal structure: all members follow the leader (the oldest female), and when the leading female dies, the next oldest female elephant takes her place. Like humans (at least in most cases), experienced females are renowned for their wisdom and teach other members of the herd.

6. Pregnancy in a female lasts almost 2 years

African elephants have the longest gestation period among all land mammals, it is 22 months (although among those that have the longest period of gestation of embryos, the frilled shark is in the lead, the gestation period of which exceeds 2 years, and according to some sources it is no less than 3.5 years!) Newborn elephants weigh more than 100 kg at birth. The female gives birth to offspring once every 4-5 years.

7. Elephants Evolved Over 50 Million Years

Elephants and their ancestors used to be much more common than they are today. As far as the fossil evidence can tell, the ultimate ancestor of all elephants was the tiny, pig-like Phosphaterium ( Phosphatherium), who lived in northern Africa about 50 million years ago. Tens of millions of years later, to the later, more recognizable "elephant hamsters" such as phiomii ( Phiomia) and bariteria ( Barytherium), represented pachyderms on land. By later, some branches of the elephant family were characterized by their false lower canines, and the golden age was a million years ago, when the North American mastodon and woolly roamed the vastness North America and Eurasia. Today, surprisingly, the closest living relatives of elephants are dugongs and manatees.

8. Elephants are an important part of their ecosystems

Whatever one may say, elephants have an important influence on their lives. They uproot trees, compact the ground underfoot, and even deliberately widen water holes to allow for relaxing baths. Such actions benefit not only the elephants themselves, but also other animals that benefit from these habitat changes. For example, African elephants are known to dig caves on the sides of Mount Elgon on the Kenya/Uganda border, which are then used as shelter bats, insects and more small mammals. When elephants eat in one place and defecate in another, they function as important seed carriers. Many plants, trees and shrubs will find it difficult to survive if their seeds are not present in elephant excrement.

9. Elephants were used in war

There is nothing more impressive than a five-ton elephant adorned with intricate armor and sharp spears attached to its tusks. Using animals in war was a way to instill fear in the enemy - or at least nothing else was the case more than 2,000 years ago, when pachyderms were conscripted into the ranks of armies. The use of war elephants peaked around 400-300 BC. and continued until the invasion of Rome through the Alps in 217 BC. After this, elephants were still used in the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, and were also common among Indian and Asian military leaders. However, at the end of the 15th century, when gunpowder began to be used, an elephant could easily fall after being shot.

10. Elephants continue to be endangered by the ivory trade.

Elephants, like other defenseless animals, face many threats: pollution, habitat destruction and encroachment by human civilization. They are especially vulnerable to poachers, who value these mammals for the ivory contained in their tusks. In 1990, a worldwide ban on the ivory trade resulted in the conservation of some African elephant populations, but poachers in Africa continued to defy the law. One positive development is China's recent decision to ban the import and export of ivory; it didn't completely eliminate poaching by ruthless ivory traders, but it certainly helped. Elephants are currently endangered.

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